International Children’s Day of Broadcasting is celebrated in Ukraine

KYIV, 1 March 2009 – The International Children’s Day of Broadcasting (ICBD) is observed today worldwide. This year the theme for the ICBD is "Unite for Children - Tune in to Kids." This is the day when broadcasters around the world open their airwaves to programmes by, for and about children.

In Ukraine, the broadcasters were celebrating this Day by creating special programming in Kyiv and packaging the existing programming as a marathon in Dniprovetprovsk with involvement of children and young people.

The national TV channel "First National UT-1" is presented a special 20-minute programme “Pidsumochky” devoted to the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting. This is a TV digest produced by kids highlighting major news of the week. Children has the chance not only to report but also to express their opinion about the Ukrainian developments and events. On 1 March 2009 the young reporters produced a series of stories devoted to the youth journalism in Ukraine and portrayed the young reporters participating in production of TV programming and cartoons. They informed about the International Day of Children’s Broadcasting observance worldwide and talked to their peers about the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and realization of their right to information.

In Dnipropetrovsk the children TV and press studio “Vmeste” and the regional TV channel “27 kanal” produced and broadcasted a marathon from 10:00 till 13:00 on the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting. The programme consisted of five segments covering the issues of education, healthy life style, music, art and culture news. Besides the episodes, the anchors of the marathon conducted several discussions in studio: with young actors of the local theatre on how to choose the profession; with volunteers on how to help the civil society organizations; with pupils of the Dnipropetrovsk school # 34 on their initiative “Road Safety School”. Also, the quizzes for kids were conducted within this marathon. The presenters of all rubrics and episodes are children that also participate in the programming development and production.

As a result of this Day global celebration, UNICEF will award the International Children's Day of Broadcasting Award to honor television and radio broadcasters who capture the spirit of the ICDB. UNICEF will offer regional awards to the broadcasters which best promote the principles, purpose and main themes of ICDB. Each regional winner will be invited to New York in November 2009 and one television and one radio nominee will receive the prestigious International Children's Day of Broadcasting Awards.